Will 15 percent ethanol gas rev up engine damage?

ROAD WARRIOR

Q: Last year you wrote about how gas with 15 percent ethanol content might be coming our way, but if so it could be used only in cars from the 2001 model year or later. I was wondering how the government can increase the ethanol content in gasoline to an amount that can't be used in vehicles from 2000 or earlier. There are a lot of people out there with older cars who can't afford a newer vehicle.

— Russ Schrantz, Hellertown

A: Your question is timely, Russ, as the Environmental Protection Agency recently steered a bit closer to approving 15 percent ethanol gas, or E15, though a final decision remains somewhere down the road, with E15 opponents trying to apply the brakes.

If E15 does arrive as the feature attraction at a gas station near you, and if it's a box-office success like E10, the current 10 percent ethanol blend, it could become a market leader faster than a Porsche 911 in a drag race. E10 now comprises more than 90 percent of the U.S. gasoline market, according to the EPA, and nobody I know of can find a drop of pure gasoline in the Lehigh Valley any longer. Where that less than 10 percent of "real" gas is being sold, I don't know, but it's not here, and judging by the traffic rolling into my email garage, many motorists aren't very happy about it.

E15 turns the key on even more questions. Despite government assurances, some people insist that E10 can harm engine components, particularly emission-control systems. Others attribute rough idling or hard-starting engines to the ethanol, and many question the wisdom of adding a fuel that cuts vehicle mileage by about a third compared with the same volume of good old gasoline, even if it is renewable and home-grown.

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents oil refiners, strongly opposes E15. In the April 2 action I mentioned earlier, EPA approved the first group of manufacturers to supply ethanol for the E15 mix, including big-rig businesses like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.

The response from the fuel and petrochemical manufacturers was swift. In a written release, President Charles Drevna called the decision one in a series of "unwise, premature and irresponsible … actions in its rush to force E15 to the marketplace. EPA's hasty attempts to speed introduction of E15 before necessary testing is complete could endanger the safety of American consumers, threatening their vehicles and gasoline-powered equipment with possibly severe damage."

Not surprisingly, the Renewable Fuels Association provided opposing traffic, hailing the decision to approve E15 as a registered fuel, hitching E15 to the bumper of high gas prices. "With ethanol selling [at] an average of $1 a gallon [less] than gasoline, and [with] $4 gasoline on the horizon, we'd encourage all Americans to ask their local filling station how soon they will see more-affordable E15," the association said in a release. (Too bad most Valley filling stations are staffed by lone part-time clerks in booths or inside convenience-store buildings and have little say in what's sold at the place.)

With all this political traffic in both directions, and some legal action in the fuel mixture, it's difficult mapping a course to objective answers. Is this stuff going to hurt my car's engine or not? More precisely, is it going to hurt your pre-2001 model's engine, Russ? My beloved 1993 Honda is history, but until six months ago, I would have been in the same boat as you.

U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, released information last year indicating that 12 major car brands contend E15 could damage engine components, and in some cases possibly void warranties. Conspicuously absent from the list is world leader General Motors, some of whose "flex-fuel" models safely can use up to 85 percent ethanol, or E85, and other manufacturers also offer some flex-fuel models.

Drevna said his own new car's owner's manual recommends nothing higher than E10, and my 2012 Fiat 500 manual warns that "gasoline with higher [than E10] ethanol content may void the vehicle's warranty."

Some small-engine manufacturers whose products power string trimmers, chain saws and similar implements also consider E15 a threat.

So how will the EPA make sure that motorists with pre-2001 model cars don't mistakenly fill up with the apparently engine-damaging E15? This is just me speculating, but they can't preclude the error completely as they did when they began phasing out lead as a component of U.S. gasoline in 1973. In that case, filler nozzles were narrowed for lead-free gas dispensers, and filler-opening sizes were slimmed proportionally on new cars, so that the wider nozzles dispensing leaded gas could not fit into the openings.

In the case of E15, the 2000-and-older car models already are on the road, and it wouldn't be feasible to retrofit those millions of cars with different fuel fillers. Besides, the nozzles might become too restrictive for efficient dispensing, and too many different nozzle sizes might result.

Instead, EPA will require sellers to place informational stickers on the gas pumps, just as they did with E10, and rely on consumers to avoid pumping the wrong product into their tanks. Good luck with that.

All this is assuming E15 comes to market as expected. There's no official word on exactly when — or if — that might be.

Road Warrior appears Mondays and Fridays, and the Warrior blogs at mcall.com. Email questions about roadways, traffic and transportation, with your name and the municipality where you live, to hartzell@mcall.com, or write to Road Warrior, Box 1260, Allentown, PA 18105-1260.